“Bagging” oncology treatments saves money for payers but increases cost for patients – Healthcare Economist – GWC Mag

That is the finding from a Shih et al. (2023).

Their first finding is that white bagging and brown bagging are not yet that common, with the exception of supportive care.

However use of “bagging” does save money…for payers at least.

Adjusted mean insurance payments PPPM [per patient per month] were statistically significantly lower for drugs distributed under bagging vs buy and bill ($7405 [95% CI, $7111-$7700] vs $9547 [95% CI, $9471-$9622]; P < .001); …Adjusted mean and median OOP payment PPPM was higher for bagging practice vs buy and bill (mean: $315 [95% CI, $278-$351] vs $145 [95% CI, $141-$148];

The full article is here.